Denver Catholic

5 DENVER CATHOLIC | JULY 25-AUGUST 7, 2015 Cover Story You're Invited to the Third Amazing Parish Conference August 11-12, 2015 Denver, Colorado WHERE Denver Marriott Tech Center (room rate of $154) WHEN August 11th -12th (optional team half-day on August 13th) COST Materials, conference sessions, and meals are provided for parish teams of up to five members for $1000. Parishes with any funding concerns please contact Deacon Steve Stemper at the Catholic Foundation of Northern Colorado. For more information, send an email to Team@AmazingParish.org with your parish name and contact person. To register visit us at AmazingParishConference.org Archdiocese of Denver Mortuary 12801 W. 44th Ave. Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 (303) 425-9511 Mt. Olivet Cemetery 12801 W. 44th Ave. Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 (303) 424-7785 St. Simeon Cemetery 22001 E. State Hwy. 30 Aurora, CO 80018 (720) 859-9785 • Professional, personalized service • Respectful • Compassionate The Archdiocese of Denver Cemeteries and Mortuary Caring for the faithful in Northern Colorado since 1893 in their most personal time of need. FRIDAY August 7, 2015 6 - 11 pm SATURDAY August 8, 2015 5 - 11 pm SUNDAY August 9, 2015 4 - 9 pm FUN FEST CAR SHOW 4 – 7 pm Sunday only Live Music: Friday - Genuflectones • Saturday - Jon Maez Band • Sunday - Rendition G O O D M U S I C • G O O D FO O D FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY $5,000 GRAND RAFFLE!! 7595 Federal Blvd. Westminster, Colorado F has cared for the elderly poor across the world for more than 175 years. Denver is home to one of the order's 28 nursing homes in the United States. Mother Metzgar said she and nine sisters work with a large sta£ to care for more than 60 elderly at their Denver home. The sisters argued the government is forcing them to act against their reli- gious beliefs because of its requirement to provide free contraceptives including sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs and devices. Churches are exempt from the mandate, but charitable organi- zations like the Little Sisters are not. Attorneys from the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom presented the sisters' case in a lawsuit challenging the HHS mandate, a part of the A£ ordable Care Act also known as Obamacare. Mark Rienzi, lead attorney for the Little Sisters, reacted to the July 14 ruling. "After losing repeatedly at the Supreme Court, the government continues its unrelenting pursuit of the Little Sisters of the Poor," he said in a statement. "It is a national embarrassment that the world's most powerful government insists that, instead of providing contraceptives through its own existing exchanges and programs, it must crush the Little Sisters' faith and force them to participate. Untold millions of people have managed to get contraceptives without involving nuns, and there is no reason the government cannot run its programs without hijacking the Little Sisters and their health plan." The Becket Fund said the ruling is a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court's temporary protection of the Little Sis- ters in December 2013 when they were granted an injunction to shield them from hefty fi nes. The federal court heard the nun's oral arguments in December 2014, when Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor, stated, "As Little Sisters of the Poor, we simply cannot choose between our care for the elderly poor and our faith. And we should not have to make that choice, because it violates our nation's com- mitment to ensuring that people from diverse faiths can freely follow God's calling in their lives." At issue is a waiver form the sisters could sign to receive an exemption from the mandate, but the appeal states that it "would make them morally complicit in sin, would contradict their public witness to the value of life, and would immorally run the risk of misleading others." The form in fact would authorize a third- party to provide the services they fi nd morally objectionable. The Little Sisters and their attorneys are reviewing the court's decision and will decide whether to bring their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the Becket Fund. "We will keep on fi ghting for the Little Sisters, even if that means having to go all the way to the Supreme Court," Daniel Blomberg, attorney at the Becket Fund, said in a statement. The court's order also impacts the Christian Brothers Services and Chris- tian Brothers Employee Benefi t Trust, the Catholic ministries through which the Little Sisters obtain their health coverage. "All we ask is to be able to continue our religious vocation free from government intrusion," Sister Maguire said. For more information about the Becket Fund and the Little Sisters case, visit www. becketfund.org/hhsinformationcentral. « 1 | The Little Sisters care for the elderly poor in Denver. DENVER CATHOLIC FILE PHOTO Little Sisters of the Poor attend oral arguments in their case against the HHS mandate in December. The court ruled July 14 that the nuns must comply with the mandate. PHOTO BY BERNARD GRANT/DENVER CATHOLIC

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